Millennials account for nearly a quarter of the American population, with collective pockets each year as deep as $200 billion. For mass market retailers, this makes them a critically important group — especially as they begin to have families. The high bar Millennials hold for brands is only made higher when it comes time to

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart announced that it will slow the pace of store expansion as it accelerates its push into e-commerce. Walmart’s plans call for capital spending of about $11 billion in fiscal 2018, which starts in February. That’s about the same as this year’s capital spending but is less than the $11.5 billion in

MINNEAPOLIS — Supervalu Inc. has agreed to sell the Save-A-Lot deep discount grocery chain to private equity firm Onex Corp. for $1.37 billion in cash. The deal comes more than a year after Supervalu announced that it was exploring options for a separation of the Save-A-Lot business, including a possible spin-off. Supervalu this year had

ZAANDAM, Netherlands — Earlier this month, Ahold Delhaize announced the resignation of James McCann, a member of the company’s management board, as chief executive officer at Ahold USA in order to move out of full-time executive work and into a portfolio of nonexecutive and advisory roles. The company also announced that Kevin Holt, Delhaize America

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) and Rite Aid Corp. have lengthened the time frame for completing their planned $17.2 billion ­merger. The companies this month extended the deal’s end date to January 27 from October 27 and said they expect the transaction to close early next year. Under the agreement, WBA and

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. opened four of its “flexible format” stores on October 6, including a two-story, 45,000-square-foot store on Greenwich Street in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood to serve city dwellers, office workers, tourists and others. Target on that date also opened flexible-format stores in Philadelphia; Cupertino, Calif.; and State College, Pa. The company now

NECKARSULM, Germany — German grocer Lidl reportedly is scouting for locations in Texas as part of its initial expansion into the United States. Media outlets in the Lone Star state reported this month that while Lidl remains primarily focused on East Coast locations, the deep-discount grocery retailer has acknowledged it was looking at sites in

SOUTH TAMPA, Fla. — The parent company of BI-LO, Harveys and Winn-Dixie, Southeastern Grocers LLC, has opened its second next-generation Winn-Dixie concept store here. With a focus on high-quality food, value and customer service, Winn-Dixie at Hyde Park has been tailored specifically to its surrounding community and is part of an extensive store remodel program

WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation (NRF) said it expects retail sales, excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurant meals, to increase 3.6% to $655.8 billion in November and December. That would mark an acceleration over the 3% growth in the final two months of 2015 and represent a significant increase from the 10-year average of 2.5%

NEW YORK — Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (WBA) was honored earlier this month at the United Nations Foundation’s 2016 Global Leadership Awards Dinner for its commitment to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through its support for well-being around the world. The UN awarded WBA for its vaccination program “Get a Shot. Give a Shot.” —

The holiday selling season remains, just weeks before it kicks off, a mystery, at least in terms of what’s going to happen. Even now, Christmas merchandise is in the stores, awaiting set-up. Holiday promotions have long since been planned, and advertising is locked in. All that waits is for the customer to choose her preferences.

Much of the talk in the supermarket industry revolves around the pending arrival in the United States of Lidl, a privately held company based in Neckarsulm, Germany, whose stores have had a powerful impact on markets across Europe. Now numbering more than 10,000 in 26 countries, Lidl supermarkets represent a compelling value proposition for many